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Maple Leafs brass has plenty to keep them busy: Cox

Whether it's the Jimmy Vesey watch, keeping tabs on the Penguins’ playoff hopes, or wondering about the draft lottery, there’s never a dull moment for the Toronto organization.

As their team plays out the string, Leafs president Brendan Shanahan, left, and GM Lou Lamoriello have more than enough to keep them busy over the next little while. (Brian B. Bettencourt / Toronto Star) | Order this photo

The Maple Leafs, for their part, landed Babcock despite all the predictions they had no chance. Similarly, they covet Stamkos, but won’t know for at least 3 ½ months if they’ll even get to bid on him.

So let’s deal with some crucial Leaf hockey issues that will be decided much sooner than that.

Brendan Shanahan and Co. will find out as early as this month whether another player of interest, Jimmy Vesey, has escaped their clutches or whether they actually have a shot at bringing the Harvard University senior forward into the blue-and-white fold.

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Vesey, 22, was actually drafted in the same year, 2012, as Morgan Rielly, and is more than nine months older than the Leaf defenceman. Rielly went fifth overall that year, and Vesey was selected by Nashville with the 66th pick.

Vesey went to Harvard Square to play for Ted Donato and gradually has become a dangerous offensive player and Hobey Baker finalist. He resisted attempts by the Predators to sign him last summer after his junior season.

“Some people may not understand (my decision),” Vesey wrote in the Players Tribune last month. “But maybe they don’t fully understand what the college hockey experience is truly like.”

This was a danger sign to Nashville GM David Poile, who understands like all NHL GMs do that allowing an unsigned draft pick from the U.S. college ranks to go into his senior year can spell trouble.

One of the quirks of the NHL’s idiosyncratic drafting system is that instead of going back into the draft, unsigned NCAA seniors become unrestricted free agents. In recent years, Justin Schultz used that loophole to join Edmonton instead of the team that drafted him, Anaheim. Last summer, there was a bidding war on Blue Jacket blueline prospect Mike Reilly, who ultimately spurned Columbus to sign with Minnesota.

The Predators want very much to stop Vesey from following a similar path, and hope to sign him before he hits UFA status in August. The Crimson are locked in an ECAC quarter-final matchup with RPI this weekend and, if they lose that series, it’s possible they might not make it to the NCAA tournament and their season could end, meaning Vesey would be available to be signed this month.

Vesey acknowledged staying all four years at Harvard “isn’t exactly the most conventional hockey path.”

“(But) last time I looked, the NHL’s still right where it was last spring,” he told the Players Tribune.

Vesey is from North Reading, Mass., and grew up a Boston fan. The Preds have worked very hard to lavish him with attention, and Poile went so far as to say publicly at the NHL trade deadline last week he didn’t make any moves partially because he wanted to keep a roster spot open for Vesey to join the team for the rest of the regular season and the playoffs.

“I went out and saw him before the deadline,” said Poile “I really feel he’s an excellent young player, and I feel like we’re a forward short. I painted a very clear picture to him. We’re very hopeful when the Harvard season is over he’ll sign with us.”

Poile pointed out Vesey can “burn” the first year of his entry level contract this spring.

“The only team he can play for this year is us,” he said.

For his part, neither Vesey nor his family advisor, NHL certified agent Peter Fish, have said much about his intentions lately.

“I think I’m a very loyal person,” Vesey told NHL.com last summer. “At the end of the season, if the opportunity is right, I’d like to sign with Nashville.”

So why would the Leafs think they have a shot at landing this player?

After all, they can’t offer Vesey any more in an entry level contract than the Preds can. They’re a weaker team, so they can, in theory, offer more minutes and power play time.

Beyond that, the Leafs did draft Vesey’s younger and slightly bigger brother, Nolan, two years ago. Their father, Jim, was drafted by St. Louis in 1984, managed to squeeze in 15 NHL games and last year was hired as a part-time scout by — you guessed it — the Leafs.

Some have suggested this is tampering by another name. The Leafs are a team that have been playing in the margins of NHL roster rules all season, and there’s a sense Lou Lamoriello has brought a more hard-minded approach to the Leaf player acquisition process.

Poile realizes that if Vesey chooses to explore free agency rather than join the Preds this season, Nashville’s chances of keeping this prospect will drop dramatically.

“It would be less than perfect if he doesn’t sign with us right away,” said Poile.

So the next few weeks will be critical as to whether the Leafs get a chance to take a run at Vesey at all.

On another short-term front, the Leafs are also carefully watching the progress of the Pittsburgh Penguins, who are hanging by their fingernails to a wild-card berth in the Eastern Conference. If the Pens make it, the Leafs own their first-round draft pick from last summer’s Phil Kessel trade. If Pittsburgh doesn’t, it rolls over to a first rounder next year, and if the Pens then miss again, it would become a second-round pick.

So clearly, the Leafs are cheering like mad these days for the Pens, who had 16 games left on their schedule, seven at home, going into a game in Columbus Friday night.

Kasperi Kapanen came from that deal, so Leaf fans have seen some of the return from the trade already. But the first-round pick in a good draft in June, particularly if the Pens just barely make the post-season, is something the Leafs dearly want.

We’ll know in the next few weeks if Sidney Crosby and Co. make it. Soon after, sometime in the first round of the Stanley Cup playoffs, the draft lottery will decide if Auston Matthews becomes a Leaf.

Throw in the Vesey Watch, and some crucial issues will be decided for Toronto’s hockey future very soon.

Damien Cox is a broadcaster with Sportsnet and Hockey Night in Canada. He spent nearly 30 years covering a variety of sports for the Star, and his column appears here Saturdays. Follow him @DamoSpin.

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